Mum's the Word
by Inks Inc
Summary: "Abby's eyes were a molten mess, her pale cheeks were ruddy with sorrow and all in all, she was borderline unrecognisable. Ziva, for the first time in her life, felt utterly out of her depth. She was ill equipped to handle a sobbing and inconsolable Abby Sciuto." Abby needs help, but refuses to enlist her silver fox. Written for NcisLover17's birthday! Warning: Ref to Spanking.
1. Chapter 1

Ziva dabbed hesitantly at the stream of salty tears and murky mascara that was gushing down Abby's face. Discarding the quickly drenched tissue upon the tottering pile of misery that was strewn across the scientist's desk, she swiftly plucked a fresh one and resumed her dutiful patting and tutting. Abby's eyes were a molten mess, her pale cheeks were ruddy with sorrow and all in all, she was borderline unrecognisable. Ziva, for the first time in her life, felt utterly out of her depth. She was ill equipped to handle a sobbing and inconsolable Abby Sciuto. To make matters worse, the one person she knew _was_ so equipped, she was forbidden to call upon.

Strictly forbidden.

Death penalty on the table forbidden.

Rattling the tantalising Caf-Pow in front of her weeping friend, she felt her face twist in consternation when it was flatly refused and a fresh wave of sobbing began. Abby's slim shoulders were heaving with the effort of her misery, and Ziva was rapidly losing the will to live. She was _not_ good with the crying and the muffled babbling. She loved Abby dearly, like a sister. She would kill for her. Literally, kill for her. But…the crying? No, she was not down with the crying. It was not something that could be fixed. It was something that had to be gently healed. She was still working on her gentleness. It was clear to her as she looked at her friend's wracking frame that she would just have to suffer the consequences of her displeasure. Abby looked puce and in danger of choking on her own tears. The time for DIY Ziva to the rescue was over. She was woefully under-qualified.

She was calling Gibbs.

Replacing the hand that Abby held with a vice like grip with Bert the Hippo, Ziva stood. Her hand was numb but she quickly shook the blood flow back into it. Muttering softly about making a call, she knew Abby didn't even hear her as another sobbing attack struck. Self consciously patting the lab rat on the head, Ziva sprinted from the room. She wasn't calling Gibbs after all, she was _fetching_ him. There was no time to waste. Jabbing the elevator buttons furiously, she counted the minutes until she was barrelling back into the bullpen. Breezing past the bickering Tony and Tim, she flew to Gibbs' desk where he sat, raging against the machine. Wincing as the computer suffered a potentially fatal blow, Ziva cleared her throat urgently.

Gibbs looked up.

"What?" he snapped waspishly, "What is it?"

Ziva frowned at the tone, but let it go. Time and a place for everything and all that malarkey. Leaning slightly towards him so the boys' wouldn't hear, she tried to translate the tone of the situation with her eyes. Gibbs looked simply confused, his patience with the day at an absolute end. Ziva sighed internally. "It is Abby," she explained quietly, "She…well, she is in need of assistance. She is very err, upset. She needs someone who can deal with… that. With the upset." She jabbed herself in the chest viciously. "That person is not me. That person is you." She threw her eyes to the lift. "Please? Now?"

Gibbs was already on his feet and striding to the metal box before the last syllable had slipped out.

For the first time, Ziva was thankful that Tony and Tim were too engrossed in their argument about the proper place of a Twinkie on the food pyramid to notice anything was amiss. She had already signed her own death warrant by involving Gibbs when she had been practically blood sworn against it. Abby would kill her in her sleep if the boys' were to burst into the lab when she was in such a…condition. She would never forgive her as it was. As the doors closed shut, securing her and Gibbs in his office of sorts, he stared straight right ahead.

"What's the problem? Is she ill?"

Ziva shook her head slowly, biting down on her lip as indecision dogged her.

Gibbs growled. He was not in the mood for twenty questions or a false alarm about some rabbit dying in Mongolia.

"Ziva! What is the matter with her?"

She gulped. Gibbs was always at his most terrifying when it came to Abby. Which was usually fine. But…in this situation, it was a little problematic. It was pretty darn problematic actually. The reason it was a tricky question was because the answer was the reason Abby didn't want Gibbs to know of her upset. Whilst Ziva knew where she was coming from on that score, her sense of sensibility had guided her to the conclusion that Gibbs would get over any potential anger he might feel to come to Abby's aid.

That, at least, she was sure of.

She cleared her throat slowly and thought her words through carefully.

"Gibbs…I think it might be best….coming from Abby. It is her…explanation to give."

He snarled deep down in his windpipe, but the ping of the elevator arrival cut him off. Striding out like an athlete in pre-game mode, he blew into the lab with Ziva hot on his heels. Snatching the lone piece of paper off of the sterile worktop, he scanned the familiar writing in a single second. His face instantly darkened in the but for them, empty lab. Holding the hastily scribbled note up in front of Ziva's face, he raised a terrifying brow. "And how illuminating would you consider this explanation then, Ziva? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm not seeing America's next best seller written down here. Do you?"

She blinked, gulped and read all at the same time.

Her heart sank.

" _I told you not to tell him, Ziva. I told you."_

 _…_ …..

A/N: This will be a two-shot written for a great writer on here! Happy Birthday NcisLover17! I will be updating my other stories soon, too. Probably; _Of Sidelines and Baselines, Boss, Why Me? and In Loco Parentis_ before the rest of them. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed. Until next time,

_Inks.

…..


	2. Chapter 2

"Is this chair taken?"

Looking up with mascara tracks entrenched on her pale skin, Abby groaned in miserable defeat. Shifting her bag from the chair in question she stared at the bar as he sat. "How'd you find me?" She realised the stupidity of that question as she felt his warm arm brush against hers and his familiar scent wash over. "Never mind." Nodding quietly, he reached out and pushed away the incredibly bloody Mary that hadn't been touched in front of her. Catching the eye of the bartender, he spoke for the first time. "Two coffees. As strong as possible."

Retrieving the drink knowingly, the bartender clinked around for a moment, during which neither Abby nor Gibbs spoke. As the piping hot mugs were placed in front of them, Gibbs pushed one softly into her cold hands. Slipping out of his sports jacket, he draped it around her shoulders without a word. Waiting for the caffeine aroma to hit her, he was rewarded when she took a tentative sip and then a deeper gulp. She hadn't taken any alcohol, he could tell and for that small mercy, he was grateful.

"How are we doing then?"

Staring into her cup she didn't answer. A small part of her however was warmed by his presence; even though she was sure it spelt disaster. The bar they were in…wasn't exactly a place Gibbs could be comfortable. She knew it was taking him his all to turn a blind eye to the open albeit small time criminal activity that was going on around him. The waitresses dressed partially as flamingos were probably hard hitting for him as well. But he was still here. Holding her mug tightly she blinked as she felt a fresh wave of tears threaten to break free. Her voice was thick and subdued when she eventually spoke.

"How mad are you?"

He frowned and reached out to her for the first time. Tipping her chin gently upwards and catching a stray tear with his thumb, he looked at her intently. "Is that what this is all about? Why you didn't want me to know? You thought I'd be angry with you?" She stared silently for a moment, her eyes painfully red and her face deathly white. "Aren't you?" she eventually croaked. "I broke the rule…you're always mad if we break the rules." Sighing slightly, Gibbs pushed aside the curtain of her hair and squeezed her hand. "Abby. I don't care if you murder someone, which arguably is breaking the rules. You _still_ come to me. You always come to me. You know I'm open all day, every day. I don't care what you've done or not done, you never hide it from me. Not when you need help. Ok?"

She sniffled loudly but nodded.

"I just didn't want you mad at me on top of everything else."

Gibbs considered this for a moment. "Well, I'm not going to pretend I'm not disappointed in you Abby. You know better than to put yourself in a dangerous position. You know better than to not clue someone in when you're going to do something like you did. You've first-hand the consequences of people who aren't responsible when it comes to their well being. And for that, sure, I'm not impressed with you. And if what happened…hadn't happened, and I'd have found out some other way, you'd be going to sleep with a very sore behind tonight. If this ever happens again, you will be. As it is, I think a little time with tighter boundaries would do you some good." He trapped another falling tear with a soft thumb stroke. "You're grounded for two weeks. To be served at my house. No dates, friends, or fun. Just work and more work. Is that understood?"

She paled even further and made a small growl of misery in her throat, but nodded.

"Yes Gibbs."

"You also Ziva an apology. She got an earful from me for not coming to get me immediately. You're partly to blame for that and you need to make it right. You are never to prevent either Ziva or the boys from coming to me when they know and _you_ know they should. It's unfair and a bad situation to put someone in. You will make it right or I will change my mind about you _not_ going to bed with a sore tail tonight. Is that clear?"

She paled once again and nodded miserably.

"Yes Gibbs."

He remained firm for a moment before melting. "OK, so tell me what this asshole did and said. And where he can be found?" She smiled thinly at his "fix-it" approach. Some things couldn't be fixed. And the words of the guy she should never have been with was one of them. Gibbs had one rule. If one of the four were going to be with someone none of them knew, just let him or one of them know. He'd seen so much death and destruction of young men and women who suffered horrendously at the hands of strangers. A horrible proportion of them were cases where no-one had been looking for them, and if they had been looking, they could have been saved. He wasn't willing to run the risk with his four. The rule applied equally to the boys as it did the girls. They all hated it and he knew it, but it was a non-negotiable condition.

They could hate him when they were alive and well, not when they were dead and buried.

"It doesn't matter," she said quietly, "He had a fair point. I just wasn't expecting it."

Gibbs frowned.

"Tell me, Abbs. Tell me what happened."

She looked at him with sore eyes and took a deep breath. She knew there was no way out of it. "He…well we met at a bar downtown last night. We'd been chatting online for ages…" She broke off for a moment, nervously glancing at his face. His jaw tightened at her words but he took a deep and steadying breath. "You ever meet a guy in person that you've been _chatting_ to online again without telling anyone, and I'm going to have you make a paddle just like Tony did. Is that clear?" She swallowed deeply but nodded. "Carry on," he instructed, adopting his gentle tone once more, happy that she understood. "Well…we met," Abby continued quietly. "And it didn't go very well. It…didn't go very well at all."

Her eyes filled with fresh tears and he immediately pulled her into his arms, pressing his face into her hair. She melted into his shoulder, breathing in his familiar and soothing scent deeply. Her shoulders shook with misery as she spoke quietly into his chest. "He took one look at me, we hadn't exchanged pictures by the way, so he took one look at me and…" She trailed off as the words came flooding back. "And he freaked out. I sat down and he just looked at me as I were diseased or something. He was a pretty average looking guy, not my usual type. And that didn't bother me, but how I looked…really, _really_ bothered him."

She sniffled into his chest once more as his heart began to pound with rage.

He was going to rip his damn head off.

"He said I was a freak. He said I was too tall, too painted…too _weird."_ She shuddered in his grasp. "I know I'm different, I do. And I love that, but…but he made me feel like I _was_ a freak. I wasn't expecting it. It just came out of nowhere. He hated my hair, my tats, my clothes. He hated everything. After telling me all this in great detail and ranting about how he'd wasted his time on me, he just got up to leave. But…not before telling me that I'd never find a normal, decent guy. Ever."

He tightened his grip on her and carded a hand through her hair softly.

"And I don't know, Gibbs. It just got to me. I'm not proud of it, but it really got to me. I mean the last guy I had a relationship with was Michal. And look how _that_ turned out. What if he's right? What if who I am…means I'm always going to be on my own. I mean I know I'm not exactly the wife and two kids' type, but that doesn't mean I want to be on my lonesome forever. So what if how I look and how I act means that I'm going to be old and alone." She blinked into his warm chest. "What if he was right, Gibbs. What if he was right…."

He pressed a gentle kiss into her hair and cleared his throat, swallowing his sheer rage.

"You listening to me, Abbs?"

She nodded slowly.

"You are one of the most uniquely beautiful and interesting people I have ever met. In my entire life. Your quirks, your likes and your dislikes are what make you, you. You're kind, funny, outrageously smart and you treat everyone you meet with compassion and respect. You're your own person and in this day and age, that on its own is an incredible thing. You are the most incredible version of Abigail Sciuto that you can possibly be. And one day, trust me, one day when you aren't looking, when you aren't expecting it…you're gonna find your guy. Just like I saw Shannon on that bench. You're going to find your Shannon and it's going to be one of the best days of your life. And when you do…Abbs, when you do…it'll all fall into place."

He squeezed her tight.

"Ok?"

Peeling herself slowly from his chest and blinking up at him with an almost childlike desperation to believe, Abby saw the sincerity in his eyes. She trusted Gibbs, trusted him more than anyone else. And he had had his fair share of heartbreak and life experiences. And he knew her better than anyone. And if he said her time would come, then her time would come. Smiling the first small, but genuine smile she had smiled in what felt like forever, she nodded. Her voice was croaky and wispy, but it carried a kick of her usual bounce.

"Ok."

Kissing her forehead gently, Gibbs smiled his rare smile before sobering up slightly.

"Do me one favour?"

She nodded, almost sleepily.

"Give me his name, address and general description."

…

A/N: Happy Birthday, Ally, hope you liked it x

…


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